The Commitment
by CNGB
Summary: If relationships were difficult, then life was worse. Penny knew that: it was a lesson she had learned during her years in high school. Still, she had never expected that she would be manipulated by a devil and have her dreams effectively crushed-nor had she imagined that that devil would come back.


Hello, fellow Simmers! Here's a little one-shot for ya, if you're interested.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Sims and I am not affiliated. I get no profit from this. I don't even own the Sims featured in this story, the creators made them! In other words, please don't be all up in my face and junk.

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A memory from long ago, back when she was still attending Moonlight Bay High School, remained planted in her mind. _Start it_, her friend had said. Start writing. Start training. Start painting. Start _starting_. If Penny just started, then she could get the rest of it done in no time. Which is why, when a handsome young man by the name of Trevor Burton moved into the house across the street from hers and had caught her attention so thoroughly, she had initiated the conversation.

As it turned out, Trevor was remarkably easy to talk to. On their first talk he invited her inside where they continued to discuss things ranging from their favorite colors to their political views. She learned that he came from Pleasantview and she learned that his grades during high school had always ranged between _A_'s and _B_'s. She also learned that he was employed in the music industry, that he had no siblings, and that he was blessedly single, and when Penny had confessed that she wasn't seeing anyone either, he asked if she wanted to go to the Little Bistro that weekend.

When that weekend came, their relationship had begun to blossom. Trevor was something of a _needy_ individual, or at least that was the impression she got when she seen that he was "needed" to be loved by everyone. His attention was often taken away from her by other women, she noticed, but she chose to ignore that fact because, after all, many men were like that (being one of the two girls in a male law enforcement had forced her to understand that men were different from women). He was a quick one, though, that was for sure—none of her previous boyfriends could quite compare to his charm! It hadn't been long before she found herself beneath him, on her own bed, and they were making sweet sweet love, and—

And then she was pregnant.

In all of her life she had never seen a grown man look so panicked from this sort of announcement as Trevor did when she told him that he was going to be a father. Without a word he walked out her door and she watched him climb into his car on his side of the street and drive away.

Penny cried. How had she been so _stupid_? How had she not seen that Trevor Burton was nothing more than a _demon_ out to destroy her life? There was a terribly bumpy road in front of her: a member of the police was going to have a set of triplets, and there would be no father to help her along the way. Her father was dead and had been since she was twelve, and her (awful) mother, upon hearing Penny's woe, told her that she was ashamed and hung up the phone.

She was alone. Alone in responsibility. Alone in parenthood.

Still, she would never consider . . . _getting rid of_ . . . her babies, her children, even if they were a part of that ass that lived across the street. He had never bothered to contact her and she never bothered to contact him (there was a tiny part of her, in truth, that was slightly afraid of what he would do if she did go over there: what other things of his personality had he hidden from her?). She suffered for nine months and then, after Sherrie, the last of her children, came into the world, Trevor made his grand appearance.

Anger swelled up into her chest and she tried to yell at him, but before she could get out more than five curses two of the nurses that happened to be nearby had ushered him out of the room, and the other one told Penny that she needed to get to rest.

When Penny woke up again, a nurse told her Trevor was waiting for her. It didn't look as though he had gotten any sleep (or if he had, it had been incredibly uncomfortable). For thirty minutes she sat there and imagined killing him, making his death a lengthy one, but then she asked a passing doctor if he could tell the man in the vest to come into her room. Ten minutes later, Trevor came.

Penny hurled a pillow at him. It took him by surprise and the _whack_ sounded as though it stung, but she could only find it in herself to wish that it throbbed.

"What do you want? Huh? What the _hell_ do you want, Trevor Burton?" Her voice was still croaky from her screaming a few hours previously.

He didn't answer at first. She could see that the left side of his face was a bit pinker from where the pillow had made contact; it almost filled her with satisfaction and she had to fight back a laugh.

"Don't just stand there like an ass! Can't think of anything to say? Cat got your tongue? You sure could tell a girl anything she wanted to hear a few months ago. . . ."

"I . . . I know," he whispered.

Penny was used to Trevor's loud and confident personality, and hearing him sound anything akin to nervous piqued her interest and quieted her down. Trevor seemed to take this as permission to continue because he then said, "I'm sorry. I know that that sounds awful, coming from me, but . . . I really am. I've been worse than trash. I've _felt_ worse than trash. And I understand if you don't want to forgive me, I don't think I would if I was in your shoes, but . . . please, please, _please_ forgive me enough to . . . to be a part of _their_ lives . . . to be a part of yours. . . ."

She scoffed. "Why should I?"

"You don't have a good reason to. I understand that—"

"—right, because you're the one who's been walking around with three kids in your belly for nine months—"

"—but just please try to hear me out on this. I don't deserve your kindness, or your mercy, and maybe I don't even deserve to see my own kids, but I damn sure want to. I want to be with them on their birthday and I want to ask them how their first day of school was and I want to attend their graduation ceremony and, and, I want to _help you_ because I've sure as hell been awful about that during your pregnancy, and I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I don't think there's anything I could ever do to make it up to you, ever, but I have to try, so I'm begging you, Penny, please try and forgive me—even if it's only for their sakes!"

He wasn't out of breath, despite the sentence that would have made any Simlish teacher tear their own ears off, but that didn't surprise her at all. Trevor was a singer and took care of his most precious instrument, and so it was less likely for him to run out of breath.

His cheeks were flushed, though, she noticed. The half of his face that she had hit was no longer darkened. And his eyes were bright. She noticed that, too. Bright, just like they were when he had told her his dearest ambition to become the world's most renown rock star. _Then_ he had been telling the truth. _Then_ he had been earnest, eager for her to believe what he was saying and to even support him on his endeavors, at least lightly by telling him a simple "good luck." He had been telling her the truth then . . . and he was telling her the truth now.

"I . . . I don't want to forgive you."

He nodded jerkily.

"But . . . it's . . . difficult. It will be . . . difficult. And I've never been a big believer in keeping one parent out of a child's life, unless he or she is a killer or a pedophile or something equally disgusting . . . so it would be wrong of me . . . to. . . ."

She stopped. Trevor looked as though he was going to start dancing on the Moon right then and there. She had exhausted all of her immediate rage and left only the residuals; if there was any more pillow-throwing to be done, it would not be done there. Penny was too tired for it.

He was happy; she was not.

And yet she knew in her heart that, at least this time, he would keep his commitment.

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That's that. I'm trying to get back into writing again and when I was playing _The Sims 3_ for the Xbox 360 this idea came into my head . . . and it wouldn't leave me alone. No, actually, the original idea was through Trevor's perspective and involved his and Penny's marriage after he remained gone even months after Rod, Joanna, and Sherrie were born—but then I decided against that story and went with this one.

As I mentioned in the disclaimer, I created neither Penny nor Trevor (nor their triplets). In truth I wouldn't have even known that the Trevor on my game was a father had I not had my Sim ask him to move in. :P So um . . . there ya go.

_¡Adios!_

- Brandi


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